GEORGE TOWN, May 15 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today urged Putrajaya to extend food and water supplies along with medical care to the thousands of migrants adrift at sea, after their boats were turned away from Malaysia’s maritime border.
While he did not question the federal government’s position in denying entry to the thousands of mostly Rohingya Muslims aboard dozens of boats allegedly left adrift by human traffickers, Lim said the least the country could do was help sustain their lives.
“So, based on humanitarian grounds, whatever action that is taken, they should be given food, water and medicines,” he said at a news conference at the Penang State Assembly here.
Between 6,000 and 20,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants are believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca after they were allegedly abandoned by their traffickers.
Most of them were thought to be headed to Malaysia but after more than 1,500 migrants came ashore in Malaysia and Indonesia in the past week, both countries decided to turn away any more boats carrying migrants.
Yesterday, one of the boats with about 500 migrants on board was headed to Penang’s shores but it is believed that the boat was also turned away by the authorities.
When asked if the state would take them in, Lim said he has no control over the country’s borders and that this is strictly under Putrajaya’s jurisdiction.
“We have to also look at national security. Are we sure these people are refugees? So, when it involved national security, I believe we should take a common stand and I do not want to be seen as taking political advantage over this,” he said.
Lim added that he has not been fully briefed on the issue so he does not want to comment further on it.
The plight of the migrants have led to a Facebook plea by prominent social activist Marina Mahathir to organise a public humanitarian mission to help them.
Former foreign minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar also urged Putrajaya to save them from imminent deaths.
